Building a computer? Need advice/suggestions? Come here!

[Dwood]

ALL RIGHT, well, i've done most of my computer, fooled around with 6+ HDD's of 250GB trying to get them all in RAID, reinstalled Windows, had tons of dumb errors, and i am now on the final stretch for victory of my PC!

Total Specs up to this point: (prices are approximate, as I haven't remembered them all. If you ask, I can look them up fairly easily)
AMD 8150 FX 8-core 3.6 Ghz (<free> THANKS RAMBO, you're AWESOME!) (Windows Experience index: 7.6)
ASROCk 990FX Extreme9 (if i'd done some more searching, pci-e 3.0 would have been nice, but w/e. this'll last me until I can pay off the car)
16 GB of RAM (7.6 on the index) ($300)
ATi Radeon 7970 3GB GDDR5 (7.9) ($300)
Case: Rosewill Thor ($230)
Corsair 850W Gold Semi-modular PSU ($250)
Samsung Evo 126 GB SSD (~$100)
8200 Dpi mouse (no linux support ) ($30)
Salvaged Laptop Screen controller from ebay ($50) this screen has max res of 1600x 900, which actually my laptop hardware couldn't go to, it only went to like 1440xSomething, so that was a neat surprise.
Laptop screen stand from cardboard cutout box: $0
Sennheiser HD595 headphones ~$120 (Skyrim and Doom BFG... super expensive, it was like 90 bucks all together. )

This hobby's kind of out of hand... I need to stop buying things. Yeah, God would probably want me to stop. Why did i even mention God? idk.



The next step, in all honesty, is a 2560x1440 display, which I am NOT purchasing unless I can get it for sub-$200. I'll get, believe me.

[Warsaw]

1440 x 900, that's the old 16:10 widescreen resolution that came standard on 15" laptops.

You should buy another 7970 to complement that first one.

[InnerGoat]

I'm liking the monitor stand

Also yeah get a second 7970 and turn that room into a oven~

[Dwood]

I'm liking the monitor stand

Me, too. /Cheap

Also yeah get a second 7970 and turn that room into a oven~

We can bake cookies!

And a correction! The Rosewill Thor was $230 not $300.

[Higuy]

Finally got around today to organizing my room so my computer setup is across from my TV, where my 5.1 surround sound is set up. Now I can finally hook my computer to it and use the speakers for sound



What I get to look up at everday



Also, for those who don't know, heres my computer specs:

Monitors:
Two Samsung SyncMaster 2233's 22" for the sides
Samsung 24" LED for the middle. (couldn't find the old ones on the side, didnt want to buy two more of this monitor )

Computer Specs:
CPU: Intel i7 3.1ghz
Motherboard: ASUS Maximus Gene V
RAM: 8gb Vengence RAM
GPU: Asus ATI Radeon HD 7850 2gb
HDD: 1TB Western Digital and a 500gb Western Digital
PSU: 750w TX Corsair

I'm thinking about getting another 7850 maybe so I can run crossfire... Not totally sure about it, but I think it would be pretty cool. Case is kinda small though, and thats another thing I'd like to upgrade, since I've had the case for almost 6 years and its getting kinda beat up.

You can also see in the corner of the first picture my home server. I use this for game development and other stuff, got a sweet repository and Windows Server 2008 on it. Runs like a champ ! I didn't build it, its an HP, and its pretty sweet. 4 storage bays and its really small, pretty fast as well. The "HP ProLiant MircoServer". Got a 1TB and another 250gb in it. I'd like to eventually upgrade from it, but for now, this works pretty good.

[Dwood]

too bad no monitors below 27" have higher res than 1920.

also@ innergoat. I have a history of awesome computer stands:

[Warsaw]

There was a time when you could get 24" monitors in 2048x1156 or some funky-ass resolution like that. Samsung made them, and they were awesome.

[Zeph]

There was also once a time where you had monitors at 5:4.
16:10 is sadly the last bastion of PC-unique resolutions and the final hope for something other than a television-based experience.
Woe is life until 8k. Apparently we're all supposed to just stop caring then because pixel density is so crazy good.

[Dwood]

Except those are discontinued for some reason and that sucks.

plz bring back high pixel density small form factor monitors

Mac gets it point #1

2560-by-1600 IN A THIRTEEN-INCH LAPTOP.
2880x1800 display in a 15" LAPTOP.

See ebay: HERE

I'm tempted to grab one of those 2880x1800 for 150, and purchase a compatible controller board for $100. There's a guy who made his own... If we can find a 2880x1800 for ~$80 or less, it's an instant-buy, to be honest. Though, you can grab a 9" retina display for around the same price.

point #2

Edit:

I firmly believe the problem with monitors, is that the prices do not scale appropriately. As higher resolution and hertz etc comes out, the lower-end models should drop in price, by orders of magnitudes. The problem is that people still buy the lower end models, bringing up the price of said models, so there's a marginal if any, difference between the two. Thus, screen-makers are not as inclined to offer a good deal for their lcd screens except in the case of TV's which, by comparison, still suck.

[Warsaw]

There was also once a time where you had monitors at 5:4.
16:10 is sadly the last bastion of PC-unique resolutions and the final hope for something other than a television-based experience.
Woe is life until 8k. Apparently we're all supposed to just stop caring then because pixel density is so crazy good.

My previous monitor was 5:4. If getting the Dell U3011 wasn't another $200 over the U2711, I would have gotten it. Alas, $200 for another 160 vertical lines was just not worth it. So, 16:9 for me it was. On the upside, it means I don't have letterboxing or distortion when using my Xbox 360 with it.